disseasonability
an easy winter
brutal summer
heat
in exchange for
the snow
fair exchange?
there is romance
in the snow
yes
and peril, too
but do we forget
(speaking in January)
that
there is danger
in the high heat,
too
not to mention
polar ice shelves
sliding into
sea
exposing land
which is interesting
though
in fact
we are losing our cool
so to say
and for real
the Earth is heating
and we need
the heat
and shall we forget
we need the cold
as well
sorry
we’re not halfway
keep talking winter
in the northern world
at least
and maybe ask
down south
how the summer’s
doing
c l couch
photo by Liana S on Unsplash
for once
(please or is it pleas)
if God
then God
come down
not only from the Christmas tree
but from every tall place
we cannot reach
or only with precarity
and up from every
deep dark place
we can imagine
not to mention woeful places
we cannot
and from left
or from the right
and then from the inside
where our own spirits
reside
with or without alliances
from the spirit
that moves everywhere
and with our will
might live
within us
God come from every place
every point
we measure
and beyond
and realize
please
for once
a real form
that we can see
from which we hear the voice
that we could taste
and close enough to smell
even to touch
with or without piercing points
for remembrance
or for proof
and be here for a while
we could have coffee
with or without
an armageddon
after
c l couch
photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
“Christ Climbed Down” is a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which I thought of when writing about God climbing ("come down")
yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and so the following is for this day and any day we remember something larger than ourselves that still involves our responsibility in happiness or sadness to enact
day of remembrance
yesterday was for remembrance
each day is for remembrance
and recall
together
with poppies
or monuments of angles
the ceremonies we create
over what has happened
so we might remember
and not
as Santayana says
doom ourselves
to repetition
of the dire
and destructive
take it slowly on these days
don’t rush to something else
the prophet margin
will remain
in the margins
a call of justice
that is heard
might mediate
with all the other worldly matters
all our loves
the good things
the distracting things
that sometimes we must order
like new things
especially through
our days of remembrance
c l couch
photo by Pete Nuij on Unsplash
Out from Under
I get tunnel-visioned
Don’t we all
Or maybe not
Maybe there are those
Who are clear
Nearly all the time
Who have the sight
Beyond seeing
Hear the message
More than sound
Touch
And taste
The living water in
Life-giving air
Who get the magic
In the doctrine
Or without any word
That’s formal
Who get it
While we don’t
Who understand the Earth
With that kind of listening
That touch
Who also understand the pain
And do not give it
Or if a little
Ask for pardon
Promising
Enacting
Some
(not all)
Penance
C L Couch
Photo by rashid khreiss on Unsplash
the right hand doesn’t know
(sometimes left people have it right)
God
I haven’t mentioned you
though I know
you’re there
we are in dialogue
it seems
I hope it is an angel
who negotiates
like the bush that burned
and spoke
and the angel who held
Abram’s hand
and changed him
in the harshest lesson of
obedience
and mercy
and not the voice of one
erstwhile
who cackles now
so subtly
so quiet-like
to say
do this
do that
my master calls
and through it
we will ruin everything
‘til everything become
inferno
and subservience
without the pleasure
from a lord
who gives none
which is a lot
to parse
while deciding
to go right
or to go left
listening to one
the angelic
and other one
the sinister
like the shoulders
in cartoons
only the stakes
though small
could become a trend
of listening
to one leaning
or the other
I might have let the demon in
so long ago
and while want the angel-voice
alone
have struggled ‘tween the two
two wills represented
and how long
‘til we know better
easily
domestically
or cosmically
while the stakes are only
turning right
or left
the angelic
or the sinister
which makes a left hand
of theology
and will
to work
and to believe
and within these
grace
to have it right
(or left)
and so be saved
c l couch
photo by Nguyen Minh on Unsplash
gifted
I’d like to give you each
a present
though I’m poor
and not the kind of poverty
that saints admire
for I have little
mystic understanding
and what I have
is tied
to nothing like
how much
how little
I have
I’d like to say
go slowly
as the Buddhists
say
especially
when parting
I’d like to say
remember all your loves
made up of
reason
practicality
and balance
not that passion
doesn’t count
it does
but there should be a measure
in most things
of what is right
and what is easy
(like
Jack’s pieces
well
maybe not so much)
which is
(really)
to say
let all good things
have their place
and do not rearrange
from the heaven
of creation
and the philosophy
inside all things made
for there is
certainty
as well as confusion
the way this world works
and don’t deny
the sure things
that you
and others
who are smart
and might be trusted
might ally
I’d like to say
think God
(like another movie)
though I know
that’s not enough
or I could say
love
and let love
not frilly silly
(‘til the day)
but steady
and trustworthy
have its say
and guide
however trite it sounds
each day
I guess
some things are cliché
like the way we use
iconic
meaning not a symbol
but celebrity
believe
and love
so common
(a cliché)
and yet maybe
we can still ourselves
and our sophistications
to accept
that some things
important things
the most important things
are commonplace
no secrets
no requirements
but to accept
what is instilled
(installed
as it were)
within internal palaces
or offices
or bungalows
(I’ll take a wooded cabin)
in the mind
in what we call the heart
in what really is
the spirit
might be
an alliance of the spirits
one by one
within
between
our groups
our nations
for an errant world
on its quest
our quest
to grow
to acquire
and to save
good things
and we could have rituals
and easiness
(not mindlessness)
in what passes
from the Earth of now
into
the next
of now
c l couch
photo by Luca Pennacchioni on Unsplash
time and temporality
(for dreamers and for planners)
we look
we hear
we wonder
as we wander
like the song
out under the sky
or being still
having gone nowhere
perforce
or by design
the need to have some time
an hour or a day
in which we do not move
but traverse everything
inside
and inside
where shall we go
what shall we
hear
what shall we
see
what shall we smell
or get a taste of
what is the other sense
what shall we taste
though we may
also travel throughout
time
slip into other states of being
as our possibilities
visit other worlds
that we make
for moments
that never happened
though we may go there
for the possibility
the changes
the resolutions
never having taken place
except there
in what we visit
on the inside
that time and life
under the sun
never allowed
waking issues
that are not solved
out here
but we should
do this
this is good
a friend of mine might say
about ideas
when we planned things
together
in the day
this added time to dream
might engender
visions
three dimensions
only
but good experiences for
our constituencies
starting with
those of
one
then two
and who’s to say
the dimension of the spirit
or the spirits
will not be joining us
the outer life
the inner life
somehow touched and satisfied
through dreaming and
then
through waking
c l couch
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die
for poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.
adapted by John Jacob Niles
photo by Ferdinand Stöhr on Unsplash
"Sunset in Vancouver"
Nothing to Fear
Will there be judgment
Well
Yes
Call it karma
Call it rapture
Call it the inexorable
Next thing
It will happen
As it happen
(que será
dust
in the wind)
What kind of trial
What kind of judge
What kind
Of advocate
Who stands for us
Well
It might be
That there are favored
On both sides
As the devil rides
Against our case
More than angelic
Might be those
Who argue
For us
Love
And grace
Criteria
And means
So we may say
Here
And now
Faith wins
That costs us nothing
But
Regains our souls
As if the first tragedies
Had not occurred
(though
they had)
And we are returned to God
From which
We came
Though not
Never
Without a saving story
Close at hand
Heaven
Might not be our own
Though an open door
Receive us
Forgive us
Justify us
For what has little literal matter here
But matters most
In there
And from there
Through the cosmos
Like black space
And all the wonders in between
Not to deny itself
As well
As black amazement
C L Couch
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
I Do Confess ’t
God
I feel fat
Like the fat
That Gertrude
Said of Hamlet
Meaning
Tired
Or unprepared
Or
You know
Fat
I think
You’re with me
On the inside
And guide me
From there
The presence
Of your
Spirit
Prompting
Poking
Whatever motion
Works
And I
Recalcitrant
(and fat)
Do not get it
Push back
With my own will
‘Til near
Destruction
Sometimes
And
Sometimes
Even after
You’re with me
When I’m
Slow
And wrong
Through the thickness
Of my flesh
That hides
Everything I want
To hide
Awareness of the harm
I cause
In all directions
To all souls
And do I do
So much
Or
Take too much credit
With vanity
Somehow
In deprivation
When
I know
You can ameliorate
Reach out
In dreams
Or more directly
Touching the vibrations
Of heart-wisdom
In the hurt
And maybe
For the moment
Lost
C L Couch
QUEEN He’s fat and scant of breath.— Hamlet 5.2.313
Photo by cal gao on Unsplash
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